Contents

The term "Radical Traditionalism" as used by the Tyr journal originates in the early 1970s in the privately published "Radical Traditionalist Papers", contributed to by John F. Michell in the 1980s. The term is revived in the 2000s in the context of the radical anti-modernist occultism of Julius Evola by Michael Moynihan and Joscelyn Godwin adding the subtitle Post-War Reflections of a Radical Traditionalist to their reprint of Evola's 1953 Men Among Ruins and titling their 2005 edition of Michell's The Oldie column as Confessions of a Radical Traditionalist.

The editorial preface of Tyr, vol. 1 enumerates the following "Radical Traditionalist" ideals:

"Tyr serves as a meeting place for those who see intriguing commonalities between the environmental, pagan, alternative music, and occult communities, and between certain political ideas of both the left and the right,"
further stating that the publication is "on the extreme edge of things".[2]

The reviewer for Northvegr identifies the philosophy behind Tyr as primarily "Odian" (Stephen Flowers' school of occult "Runosophy"), expressing concern that the magazine:

Northvergr then requests "firm voices calling out from the side of right and order" to correct the impression that the occultist "Traditionalism" advocated by Tyr represents a mainstream position in Germanic neopaganism.[3]

The reviewer for Willamette Week identifies Tyr as a journal of "neo-pagan crypto-scholarship" (but does not elaborate further or give example) and an "artifact of modern Bohemia" aiming at the "creation of an alternative intellectual reality", and states further that:

"..a section of this issue's preface attempts to dismiss 'The Fascist Accusation' before the fact."[4]

The "attempt" the Williamette Week refers to is the preface to volume 2. It reads:

"Watching the impressive spectacle of thousands of black-clad storm troopers marching in lock-step formation, one is reminded of nothing so much as the regimentation of modern, industrial society. The Nazi's overarching emphasis on biological materialism, and the idea that human perfectibility could be achieved through eugenics, is mirrored in the modern obsession (albeit purged of the focus on "racial purity") with cloning, genetic engineering, and mood-controlling pharmaceuticals. That any of these unnatural and frightening panaceas could genuinely reverse the soul-sickness of our age seems highly unlikely. They will only make things worse."

1. "About the Journal": "'Radical Traditionalism' means to reject the modern, materialist reign of 'quantity over quality,' the absence of any meaningful spiritual values, environmental devastation, the mechanization and over-specialization of urban life, and the imperialism of corporate mono-culture, with it's [sic] vulgar 'values' of progress and efficiency. It means to yearn for the small, homogeneous tribal societies that flourished before Christianity — societies in which every aspect of life was integrated into a holistic system."